Houston police said that it received a call at 8:30am yesterday from a roadworker reporting that a Lexus had been driven straight into a freshly laid section of road. In photos of the rush hour mishap posted on the Internet, the female driver appeared to still be in the car. Online commentators speculated that the driver was possibly waiting for the cement to dry so that it did not ruin her shoes

These appear to be the first photos of the 2012 Porsche 911 (Codename: 991), the new, 400-hp generation of Porsche's famous ass-engined sports car.

These photos, if they're real, show another gentle generational redesign, incorporating a similar ovular headlight design as the outgoing 997 with a more dramatic LED foglight package extending out beyond the Cayenne-esque grille openings, compete with LED turn signals similar to what we'd expect to find on an Audi.

In profile the car looks similar to the previous generations, carrying over the same big rear that makes the Porsche 911 iconic and different, though this time it's 2.5 inches longer. Speaking of the back-end, the 911 now has an extremely narrow slit of a taillamp wrapping around the back-end of the car.

Most dramatically, the interior finally catches up to the rest of the Porsche lineup with the long, raked center tunnel design launched on the Panamera. The multi-gauge cluster that's a hallmark of the 911 remains intact.

As we previously reported, the Carrera model launches with the 3.4-liter boxer-six it shares with the Boxster S, good for 350 horsepower. The new Carrera S, pictured in these photos, now has 400 horsepower from its 3.8-liter six. A hybrid version is on the way, but isn't pictured.

It's a Small World, After All: Earth Is Not Expanding, NASA Research Confirms

ScienceDaily (Aug. 17, 2011) — A NASA-led research team has confirmed what Walt Disney told us all along: Earth really is a small world, after all.

Since Charles Darwin's time, scientists have speculated that the solid Earth might be expanding or contracting. That was the prevailing belief, until scientists developed the theory of plate tectonics, which explained the large-scale motions of Earth's lithosphere, or outermost shell. Even with the acceptance of plate tectonics half a century ago, some Earth and space scientists have continued to speculate on Earth's possible expansion or contraction on various scientific grounds.

Now a new NASA study, published recently in Geophysical Research Letters, has essentially laid those speculations to rest. Using a cadre of space measurement tools and a new data calculation technique, the team detected no statistically significant expansion of the solid Earth.

The story exploding on the left right now is that the Obama campaign’s state director in New Mexico sent out an email containing a blog post mocking Paul Krugman and the “firebagger liberal blogosphere”for criticizing the debt ceiling deal negotiated by the White House. Liberal bloggers are asking whether this is the latest sign that the Obama team sees percentage in dumping on the left — or “hippie punching,” as the blogospheric parlance has it.

The Obama official, Ray Sandoval, circulated the email just after the debt ceiling deal passed Congress, hammering lefty critics for deriding the deal as a surrender. Sandoval’s email included a blog post that derided Krugman as a “political rookie” and decried critics for “pure, fanatic, indomitable hysteria.”

The term “firebagger” appears to be a reference to Firedoglake, whose bloggers frequently hammer the White House for giving too much ground to Republicans.

OBAMA: One of the challenges in terms of rebuilding our economy is – businesses have gotten so efficient, that, uh, when was the last time somebody went to a bank teller? Instead of using an ATM. Or, used a travel agent instead of going online. A lot of jobs out that that used to require people now have become automated.

Sparks flew Tuesday during the Congressional Black Caucus "For the People Jobs Tour" town hall in Detroit, MI, as black caucus members told the mostly black audience to "unleash" them to confront President Barack Obama on the issue of jobs.

During the sometimes heated town hall, peoples' frustration over their economic conditions overwhelmed decorum and order.

California Rep. Maxine Waters expressed her and other Black Caucus members' dilemma of having to walk a line. As representatives from communities that have had great love for President Barack Obama, it can be anywhere from difficult to impossible for Waters and the other members to be as critical of the president